Happy Birthday Urchin !

Twenty six years ago today at about 9:45 AM Kathleen Mathieu Cornell, aka "The Kid", aka "Urchin" entered this world. And the world hasn't been the same since. The Urchin who skipped 2 AM feedings as uncivilized arrived at my place today at around - ah, well - 2 AM. By 7:30 AM we were back up and on our way to her work with Sophie aboard. Urchin signed Sophie in for a bath and grooming session then gave me a tour of the Doggie Day Care & Boarding facility where she works. It is impressive, there is even a complimentary StarBucks coffee machine in the lobby. Then we cruised on over to the local Anita's for some New Mexico style brunch - which seems appropriate since Urchin's first restaurant visit as a 2 week old Kid was the original Anita's in Vienna. The inner woman fed it was then time for a nap at Urchin's digs. Well fed and reasonably well slept we decided Get Smart was a movie of the proper mood for the occasion, which it most definetly was - it had us laughing very hard more than once. From there we picked up Sophie and headed back to my place, a bit tired but happy. It was a very good day.

The photo is from Urchin's semester abroad at Doshisha Woman's College in Kyoto, Japan fall of 2003. I think the other young lady is her host sister. I don't know who the short fellow with the broom is, but if he is any good with that broom he can come to my house any time.

Farewell to A Good Friend

This is Noel, Queen to Ivan the Terrible and Calico Cat Par Excellence. For over 13 years she has shared my home, brought me mice for dinner, removed noisy crickets from my house & yard, and been a cuddle kitty laptop. Plus helped me raise my own Kat to adulthood. Noel died peacefully in her sleep late Sunday night after 17+ years of life. She is buried next to Ivan under the trees in the backyard. It is a most excellent cat place.

Happy Birthday to the USA

I got off work the morning of the 4th and took the county roads over to US 29 at Brandy Station. Seems there is a Brandy Station Battlefield area tour, I just hit 2 stops along the tour by accident. Humm - I see a pleasant motorcycle ride with camera in my near future. Anyway, I headed on over to D&D's place in Vienna for some sleep and a 4th party. Kat was already there when I arrived. After I got about 3.5 hours of shut-eye Kat & I washed her car, my truck and D&D's SUV. We just washed everything, it was starting to rain lightly so we didn't wax anything. D&D's SUV must be in shock, they said they had never washed it. It wasn't raining much so we went ahead and grilled burgers, dogs and BBQ chicken, steamed corn and tossed up a salad. It was a wonderful meal and the company was even better. It did start to rain harder about 8pm so we decided to skip Vienna's laser show along with any of the local fireworks displays. We did watch the TV broadcast of the DC Mall fireworks. (The photo above is from Vienna's fireworks a few years ago.) It was a most enjoyable evening.

The rest of my holiday weekend was a wash - mandatory OT Saturday night prevents me from going to church for Vespers & Liturgy. But the 4th was a fine day, so I'll rejoice and be glad for it.

Lazy Hazy Summer

June, July & August - The Lazy Hazy Days of Summer




Here's some pictures of some visitors to my yard.






I always expect summer to drag on for ever, a mindset developed in my childhood by the school schedule. Of course, it was only those childhood summers of unstructured time with lawn mowing my only responsibility during which summer unfolded with luxurious slowness. Now it seems to slip by all too fast. It has been 16 years since Kat & I spent today riding the Harley across the California desert and through an earthquake to Needles CA. Ten years ago Kat was touring Italy & Greece with her fellow Latin students and I was filling out financial aid forms for Chatham Hall. Eight years ago we were packing for Kat's freshman orientation at Wells College. Four years ago I was unemployed and Kat was frantically trying to get everything ready to move to Japan. Last year I was working a killer of an OT schedule at work, had 2 major events at church in June, a motorcycle rally in August and the Eastern Primitive Rendezvous in September. I only had a life at an event. Humm - my summer suddenly seems a quiet and lazy time.

Something Old - Something New

Tina in kimono at Holloween (No, her hair isn't really gray.)

Wednesday evening I had my last dinner with Tina. For those of you who don't know Tina is my daughter Kat's college roomie. She moved here after graduating from Wells with Kat. Kat went to Japan and taught English on the JET program, Tina got work here. Now Kat is back from Japan and Tina is going to Japan to be a JET teacher. Tina & I have had a lot of good times in the last 4 years; we've gone shopping, visited local art exhibits, hiked a few metro park trails, gone to a local orchard and eaten a lot of dinners at various buffets. Wednesday Tina hosted a modest farewell party at her place - a wonderful little picnic and a quiet way to say goodbye. Now she has an orientation meeting for JET in DC, then she's going back to upstate New York for a month with her family. By the 1st of August she will be half way around the world. It has been a great 4 years with Tina as my friend, May You Live Well & Prosper Tina !

The artwork is Tina's, done for her grandmother's autobiography.

Summer Time is Here at Last !

Kat came by at noon today so we went for a nice motorcycle ride around Greene county - except I kept forgetting which roads were gravel and which were not so we had to turn around a time or two - gravel isn't all that much fun to ride on particularly on the first ride of a new season. But we had a nice hour ride anyway. Then we met Tina for a farewell dinner at Outback - she is going to Japan on the JET program. Then the Urchin and I just sorta hung out for a bit and enjoyed each others company. All in All not a bad way to start a summer. This is Kat's bike, a Kawasaki Ninja 250.

The Camping Life Style

My friend Jan & I camped out at the Lynchburg Izaak Walton league Friday & Saturday. In spite of the really really hot & humid weather we had a great time. We swam in the lake, bailed out her canoe, removed 2 crayfish and various other critter from the canoe, paddled the canoe on the swimming lake, swam some more, prepared various wonderful foods, watched the fireflies, watched other folks having fun in the sun and then swam in the lake again just for good measure. Ah the little pleasures of life !